Lots of dog walking this week so it was back to the trusty audio books and the third in Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series. To say I was stunned when the book started was an understatement. It was like starting the third series of a much loved TV Sitcom and realising that they had recast all of the central characters. Lesley Manville had been the voice of the characters over the first two audio books and it was a real struggle to hear them all with a new narrator. No disrespect to Fiona Shaw who has taken over the narration on this series but it took me a couple of hours to get used to the way that she has taken over the characters- particularly Joyce, for some reason!
Following straight on from The Man Who Died Twice the group are suddenly becoming famous for their crime solving and Mike Waghorn, a local TV news anchorman, is at Coopers Chase with his production crew interviewing the group about their recent successes. He is keen for them to assist with an unsolved mystery of his colleague and journalist Bethany Waite. She had been investigating a huge VAT fraud when her car went over a cliff and Bethany’s body was never found. Always keen to get involved in a cold case the Thursday Murder Club are soon getting to grips with the evidence.
In the midst of this ex Secret Services agent Elizabeth and her husband Stephen are kidnapped and driven to a remote address where they encounter The Viking. Things turn very dark when Elizabeth is given an ultimatum. Either she kills an ex KGB agent known as The Bullet or The Viking will kill Joyce. Things are never that simple though, especially when Elizabeth is involved.
Despite all of the action and investigation things move on at pace with new relationships for some of our key characters and big changes happening for others. These are all dealt with in a very sympathetic but very matter of fact way by Osman, particularly Stephen’s ongoing descent into advanced alzheimer’s disease. The way he is protected by both Elizabeth and Bogdan is especially poignant. On a side note I am very happy to hear that Stephen Speilberg has bought the rights to turn the Thursday Murder Club into a film. It will be interesting to see who gets cast in the main roles!
UK Publication date: Sep 15 2022. 411 pages. Audiobook is 11 hours and 17 minutes.
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